A dream realized

Feelings ran high Monday afternoon (Feb. 19) when a colorfully multiracial crowd of more than a thousand people gathered in Community Park for the unveiling of the new memorial statue of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The joyful event was a long time coming—three years in the actual organizational phase but many more years in developing the awareness that Chico should do something to honor one of the nation’s greatest leaders.

Dr. King is a hero to black Americans, of course, but it’s important to remember that the civil rights of one group are the civil rights of all others. In that sense, Dr. King struggled, and eventually died, for all of us—so that we all could realize his dream of an America in which people are judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.

We honor the members of the Chico Community Coalition and especially the group’s chairman, Joe Person Sr., whose tireless determination to honor Dr. King in Chico has borne fruit at last.